Gautom Bhuyan (left) of Mount Laurel and Nihar Das (center) of Cherry Hill register with Matt Schroeder of Brick for the beach sweep in Point Pleasant Beach.

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P icking up debris from superstorm Sandy remains a major part of cleanup efforts in the spring’s Clean Ocean Action beach sweeps, volunteers said. More than 70 sites hosted cleanups Saturday morning across five counties in New Jersey. ¶ “You still find a lot of brick, a lot of concrete; you still get a lot of lumber. That’s what’s out there,” said Elle Conahan, of Point Pleasant, who volunteered as a beach captain for the Jenkinson’s beach-cleanup crew in Point Pleasant Beach.

According to Clean Ocean Action, the 2013 sweeps saw a record-breaking amount of lumber collected, debris from superstorm Sandy. Conahan said she’d expect a similar collection this year.

With 300 volunteers gathered at Jenkinson’s Aquarium on the boardwalk, it looked to be the biggest turnout in the seven years that Al Avizius of Eatontown has volunteered for the event, he said.

As a second beach captain at Jenkinson’s, Avizius said the morning was busy corralling volunteers and handing out trash bags.

“This will be filled with bags in three hours, lined up here,” he said, pointing to the wall where wood, deck boards and black garbage bags had begun to accumulate.

Volunteers worked a mile stretch from the Manasquan Inlet south, while a second beach-sweep crew combed the Maryland Avenue oceanfront.

Over at Veterans Park in Point Pleasant Beach, the Smith family of Brick was out collecting debris along Little Silver Lake.

“We’re happy to be out here to do our part,” said Laura Smith, whose son Christian is a student at the MATES Academy. Though Clean Ocean Action warns that bodies of water near parking lots and abutting landscaped lawns often collect runoff, the Smiths said the lake looked to be in better health, even spotting duck nests along the lake.

But the litter was overwhelmingly “cigarette butts, hundreds of them, probably 600 so far,” said Todd Smith, about an hour into the cleanup on the lakefront.

While a rainy night had soaked the beach sand, sunny skies instead welcomed morning volunteers, who raked and bent over to pick up litter and fill garbage bags.

Local officials, students, residents, professional and civic groups and tourists were among the thousands of participants in Saturday’s beach sweeps, Clean Ocean Action officials said.

The Highlands-based organization leads a spring and fall beach sweep. The program began in 1985 with 75 volunteers cleaning Sandy Hook, and expanded statewide in 1991.